ANOTHER BARREN YEAR FOR BUCS?
ANOTHER BARREN YEAR FOR BUCS
Micho admits Pirates are far from being silverware material
ORLANDO PIRATES’ coach Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic was blunt in his analysis of the club’s state of affairs, arguing that they can’t think, let alone talk about winning a trophy at the moment.
The Buccaneers have improved from the miserable team they were last season, but they are still not ready to meet the high demands from their fans as the Serbian coach continues the rebuilding process.
Pirates will watch the remainder of the Telkom Knockout on television after their elimination in the quarter-finals by Polokwane City on Saturday.
This means that their cup drought – Pirates are without a trophy since 2014 – will stretch to four years. And if Sredojevic’s words are anything to go by, it could be longer than that.
“First of all, I need to tell you that before we can start speaking of silverware we need to reach a certain standard,” Sredojevic said.
“I believe that we are on the right path. We just need to find the right balance between not conceding and scoring enough. We are still in the race for the two trophies in front of us (the Absa Premiership and Nedbank Cup).
“I don’t belong to the group of people who make promises.
“I know that we will do everything possible to do our best and outplay every single team that we are up against.
“I know that the way we are progressing, we will eventually get the final product that will see us play a good brand of football that will bring fans to the stadium but at the same time being tight at the back and being effective in front of goals.”
Pirates’ misfiring strikers have been their Achilles heel. The Soweto giants have scored just eight goals in 10 matches in the league. Only the bottom four sides have a worse strike rate than that. These striking woes have seen Pirates fall six points short of their target after a third of the Premiership matches have been played.
Sredojevic and his technical team targeted getting a minimum of 10 points per set of five matches having divided the 30 league matches to six sets of five.
“The first set saw the club exceed their expectations by collecting 11 points, only to fall short badly in the second set that saw them pick up a paltry three points. We have eyes, this is not a bush and you cannot hide,” Sredojevic said.
“We see everything. But instead of going and talking negative about the players, I want to tell you that they really try their best to create chances.
“It’s just that the blood enters their head when they have to put away those chances which is something that in a way is a process that we need to work very hard to make them more confident and relaxed in goal scoring situations.
“A magic stick doesn’t exist to fix these problems. It is something that we need to work on very hard at training. I believe in these boys. I believe in their qualities. It’s the same like cooking food. You prepare the food and when you have, you have to eat it. “We don’t eat. Convert the chance. “We do the hard part of creating the chances but we don’t do the easy part of just putting the ball in